Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Tenth meeting of the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee

James Cleverly: The Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee met today, 24 March 2023, in London with delegates attending in person and by video conference. The meeting was co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the Rt Hon James Cleverly MP and European Commission Vice President, Maroš Šefčovič. A Joint Statement was agreed and published on GOV.UK.The Committee welcomed the agreement of the Windsor Framework and adopted the new arrangements set out within the Framework. The adoption of this agreement restores the free-flow of trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland through a new green lane; it gives the elected representatives of Northern Ireland a veto over new laws that apply there; and protects Northern Ireland’s place in our Union through fixing practical problems including on pets, parcels and medicines and ensuring that UK decisions on tax and spend benefit people and businesses in Northern Ireland as they do in Great Britain.The Committee addressed other important issues including the rights of UK nationals in the EU and EU citizens in the UK. Both sides agreed on the importance of continuing to support these citizens and welcomed the efforts made over the past year to do so, including additional funding provided by both sides to external organisations.The Committee also received an update on the work of the Withdrawal Agreement Specialised Committees since the last meeting on 21 February 2022 and adopted the Withdrawal Agreement Annual Report for the year 2021 pursuant to Article 164(6) of the Withdrawal Agreement.   The Committee adopted one Decision laying down arrangements relating to the Windsor Framework.The Committee also adopted two Recommendations:on market surveillance and enforcement,on Article 13(3a) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern IrelandBoth the UK and EU made five Joint Declarations relating to the Windsor Framework:Joint Declaration No 1/2023Joint Declaration on the application of Article 10(1) of the Windsor FrameworkJoint Declaration on Article 13(3a) of the Windsor FrameworkJoint Declaration No 2/2023Joint Declaration on the VAT regime for goods not being at risk for the Union’s internal market and on the VAT arrangements for cross border refundsThe UK made five Unilateral Declarations and the EU made Unilateral Declarations noting these:Unilateral Declaration by the United Kingdom Involvement of the institutions of the 1998 Agreement (Annex I to the Decision No 1/2023 laying down arrangements relating to the Windsor Framework)Unilateral Declaration by the United Kingdom on market surveillance and enforcement - noted by the Unilateral Declaration by the UnionUnilateral Declaration by the United Kingdom on export procedures for goods moving from Northern Ireland to other parts of the United Kingdom - noted by the Unilateral Declaration by the UnionUnilateral Declaration by the United Kingdom on the democratic consent mechanism in Article 18 of the Windsor Framework - noted by the Unilateral Declaration by the UnionUnilateral Declaration by the United Kingdom on strengthening enforcement action for goods moved in parcels from another part of the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland - noted by the Unilateral Declaration by the Union.

Second Meeting of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement Partnership Council

James Cleverly: The Trade and Cooperation Agreement Partnership Council met today, 24 March 2023, in London, with delegates attending in person and by video conference.The meeting was co-chaired by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the Rt Hon James Cleverly MP and European Commission Vice President, Maroš Šefčovič. Representatives from the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive attended, as did representatives from the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. 27 EU Member State representatives also attended. A Joint Statement was agreed and published on GOV.UK.  The Partnership Council discussed implementation of the TCA and cooperation in a range of areas including energy, regulation, security and Union Programmes.The Partnership Council supervises the operation of the TCA, providing strategic direction to the work of the Trade Partnership Committee and 18 Specialised Committees.  The UK restated its commitment to cooperating with the EU through the Trade and Cooperation Agreement Partnership Council.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Energy Efficiency Update

Andrew Bowie: My noble friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord Callanan) made the following statement on 22 March:Today the Government is announcing £1.8bn of funding to cut the emissions and boost the energy efficiency of homes and public buildings across England. The investment will further reduce energy bills for householders and businesses, as part of the Prime Minister’s pledge to halve inflation and ease the cost of living. Altogether, 115,000 homes will benefit from energy efficiency and low carbon heating upgrades, along with 144 public sector organisations responsible for hospitals, schools, leisure centres, museums, universities and other buildings. It is being delivered through the Home Upgrade Grant (HUG), Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) and Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS). In 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to legally commit to end our contribution to global warming by 2050. This is a huge challenge. But it is also an unprecedented opportunity. The UK has already shown that environmental action can go hand-in-hand with economic success, having grown our economy by more than three-quarters while cutting emissions by over 40% since 1990. The effort will be shared across many sectors, and decarbonising the energy used in buildings, and increasing energy efficiency will be a vital component. The UK is home to around 30 million buildings which are responsible for 31% of UK emissions. We have some of the oldest housing stock in Europe, over 80% of buildings still rely on high carbon fossil fuels for heating and have low levels of thermal efficiency. To reach our net zero target by 2050 we need to decarbonise the way we heat and cool our homes and workplaces, and to ensure that in the near term we meet our fuel poverty targets and emissions reduction targets. This £1.8bn investment will be critical in supporting our commitment made in 2022 to reduce the UK’s final energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15% by 2030 against 2021 levels. The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant Through the SHDF Wave 2.1 and HUG 2 the Government are awarding a significant injection of funding worth £1.4 billion to local authorities and providers of social housing. An additional £1.1 billion in match funding for social housing is being provided by local authorities and providers of social housing, bringing the total investment to £2.5 billion to upgrade social and private homes in England. The grant funding will be invested from April 2023 to March 2025, although delivery on the SHDF can continue with the use of match funding until September 2025. The money will go towards improvements to social households and private, low income, off-gas grid households with an EPC rating of D or below and could save homes occupants between £220 and £400 a year on energy bills. Energy cutting and cost saving measures provided through the schemes include external wall insulation, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, new windows and doors and draft proofing measures, as well as heat pumps and solar panel installation. These schemes will also support around 20,000 jobs in the construction and home retrofit sectors, helping to deliver on our promise to grow the economy and create better paid jobs, whilst supporting families across the country. The funding awarded through these schemes continues the investment through “Help to Heat” Schemes which has already seen: Over £240 million already awarded to the SHDF Demonstrator and SHFD Wave 1 projects, indicating the Governments continued support to the £3.8 billion manifesto commitment between now and 2030 to deliver energy efficiency improvements in social housing. Over 37,000 households have seen energy efficiency upgrades as part of the first two phases of the Local Authority Delivery scheme, with a further 20,000-28,000 homes expected as part of the Sustainable Warmth Competition. In addition to the SHDF and HUG, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will also use ECO4 and ECO+ to accelerate our efforts to improve homes to meet fuel poverty targets and the Government has committed to a four-year, £4 billion extension and expansion of ECO with ECO4. We have announced a further £1 billon extension of the scheme through ECO+ to start in Spring 2023. Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme Over £409 million of grant funding has also been awarded through the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. This Phase 3b of the scheme will support 144 public sector organisations across 171 projects to undertake low carbon heating and energy efficiency measures across hundreds of buildings. These projects will not only help reduce the carbon emissions of these public buildings but save them money on their energy bills and ultimately, save the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds in the long-term. Hospitals, schools, leisure centres, universities and other vital public service buildings across England are set to benefit from the scheme. £2 billion has now been awarded across over 900 projects to decarbonise the public sector across all phases of the scheme to date, and even more funding through Phase 3b is to come as applications are assessed and approved. Today’s £409 million is part of the wider £2.5 billion package that this government has committed to spending on upgrading public sector buildings between 2020 and 2025, supporting this government’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037. Funding through the schemes will be allocated across England based on the following allocations: RegionPSDSHUGSHDFEast Midlands£18,112,366£3,291,300**£ 74,715,671East of England£14,677,719£23,577,300£83,628,477London£44,280,137£12,006,000£131,724,938North East£7,636,389£28,576,000£29,355,551North West£44,555,899£83,885,000£105,371,309South East£108,324,556£161,237,898£128,906,218South West£33,450,968£77,514,032£ 80,236,981West Midlands£88,371,731£152,745,310£93,593,216Yorkshire and the Humber£21,737,561£41,144,920£ 50,053,929Across regions£26,688,898--Scotland*£1,221,871--  * The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme was open to applications from public sector bodies in England and areas of reserved public services across the UK.** Further funding is available to the region via the Midlands Net Zero Hub which represents £138m of grant funding across the Midlands The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has also partnered with the Energy Systems Catapult to launch a freely accessible suite of tools, templates, and guidance to support the public sector in further decarbonising their sites. This support will help public sector bodies through the entire decarbonisation lifecycle, from the first stages of developing a strategy, through funding, installation, and completion, to help make achieving net zero sites and energy savings simpler. Energy Efficiency Taskforce The Government has launched an Energy Efficiency Taskforce to support a step change in the reduction of energy demand through accelerated delivery of energy efficiency across the economy. It will help to support the Government’s ambition to reduce total UK energy demand by 15% from 2021 levels by 2030 across domestic and commercial buildings and industrial processes. Future Funding £6 billion of new Government funding will be made available from 2025 to 2028, in addition to the £6.6 billion allocated in this Parliament. This provides long-term funding certainty, supporting the growth of supply chains, and ensuring we can scale up our delivery over time.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Update on Building Safety

Michael Gove: On 14 March, I announced that 39 developers had signed the developer remediation contract. By signing the contract, they made binding commitments to fix or pay to fix life-critical fire safety defects in all buildings in England over 11 metres that they had a role in developing or refurbishing over the past 30 years. This amounts to an irreversible commitment to making safe at least 1,100 buildings at a cost of over £2 billion.  Update on Responsible Actors SchemeLast week, I also told the House that there will be consequences for companies that do not sign the contract. I warned that they will be prohibited from commencing developments in England or gaining building control sign-off on their developments, unless they sign and adhere to the contract. I said that we will lay regulations this Spring to establish a Responsible Actors Scheme. The regulations will recognise the positive action of responsible developers and will make sure that eligible developers who do not sign and comply with the contract will be unable to be members of the Scheme, and therefore be subject to prohibitions. I will lay regulations that will, with Parliament’s consent, bring the Scheme into operation before the Summer Recess.Today, I am publishing the key features of the Responsible Actors Scheme on GOV.UK and placing a copy of the information in the libraries of both Houses. The key features document sets out how the Scheme will work, the likely eligibility criteria and membership conditions for the first phase of the Scheme, how developers will apply to join the Scheme and the prohibitions that will be imposed on eligible developers that fail to sign the contract and comply with its terms.Developers who want to be part of the Scheme will need to sign the developer remediation contract and comply with its terms. In its first phase, the Scheme will focus on larger residential property developers and developers who developed multiple tall residential buildings known to have life-critical fire safety defects. Over time, I intend to expand the Scheme to cover even more of those who developed unsafe 11m+ residential buildings and should pay to fix them.Eligible developers will be invited to join the Scheme by a statutory deadline or provide evidence that they do not in fact meet the eligibility criteria. Any eligible developer who chooses not to join the Scheme, or who is expelled from the Scheme as a result of a material or persistent breach of its conditions, will be added to a list of developers who will not be permitted to carry out major development or secure building control sign-offs.The message to those developers who have yet to sign the contract, their shareholders and investors could not be clearer. The Responsible Actors Scheme is coming. Only developers who behave responsibly will be trusted to build the homes of the future. Any eligible developers who fail to do the right thing will need to find a new line of work.  Update on signatories to the developer remediation contractAt the time of my statement of 14 March, 11 developers had yet to sign. I named those companies and called on their directors to reflect on their future and do the right thing. Today, I can confirm that 4 of those 11 companies have since signed the contract: Ballymore, Lendlease, London Square and Telford Homes. The 7 developers who have yet to sign the contract are: Abbey Developments, Avant, Dandara, Emerson Group (Jones Homes), Galliard Homes, Inland Homes and Rydon Homes. Some of those companies have told us that they remain committed to protecting leaseholders and taxpayers from having to pay, and claim that they will sign the contract in coming days.As I made plain last week, I will write to local authorities and building inspectors to explain the consequences for those companies that remain non-signatories at the point that the regulations creating the Responsible Actors Scheme come into force. I will suggest action that local authorities may want to take to be prepared for implementation of the scheme, to ensure that any companies that do not wish to act responsibly do not profit from that behaviour – and that the public is protected as a result.Given possible market sensitivities, I notified the London Stock Exchange about the key features document.